The Spanish Prosecutor’s Office announced that it will be this Wednesday when the legal situation of a entertainment promoter who has been accused of unauthorized use of the Disney name and symbols and copying, specifically, “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins”, musical works that he presented changing only some words, names or details of the story.
The Third Section of the Provincial Court of Valencia became a well-known case that many Europeans follow to find out the decision of the court after judging the accused –whose name has been protected until now–; this, derived from a lawsuit promoted under the claim that, since 2014, it has promoted and organized shows with badges of Disney in all Spain.
“With full knowledge that it was violating the rights of the company, through the use of titles that led to confusion with respect to the original version, such as ‘The Legend Returns. The Lion King. El Musical Infantil’ or ‘Supercalifragilístico, el musical’, the prosecutor pointed out.
I would earn up to three years in prison for copying Disney
Disney’s defense in Spain is asking the Court for up to three years in prison for two crimes: violating the company’s intellectual property and attacking the industrial property of the children’s entertainment giant.
And it is that the accused owns at least three companies that promote shows, which have multiple records for fraud, misappropriation and false documents.
In the brief, it can be seen how the prosecutor details that the accused is a person who works in a coordinated manner in promoting unauthorized representations of musical pieces owned by Disney Enterprises”, where, knowingly, he violates the rights, trademarks, symbols and musical compositions of the complainant firm.
“(It does) with certain changes in the title of the work and in the representation of its symbols that led to confusion in the consumer”, authorities detail.
According to data provided to the EFE agency, the man performed performances of the musical “The Lion King” in 2014 and 2015, in various venues with large capacitysuch as: the El Musical Theater in Valencia, the Buesa Arena pavilion in Vitoria, the Palacio de Congresos in Albacete, the Xesc Forteza Theater in Palma, the Gran Teatro de Cáceres, the Ortega theater in Palencia, the Silo de Pozoblanco ( Córdoba), the Víctor Villegas de Murcia, the Palacio de Congresos de Castellón, the Gayarre de Pamplona, the Sauzal de Tenerife, the Palacio de Congresos de Santiago de Compostela, among others.
However, despite the fact that as precautionary measures, issued by a Mercantile Court of Valencia, shows scheduled for Cehegín (Murcia), Santander, Barakaldo (Vizcaya) and Salamanca were suspended during the initial investigation into the lawsuit filed by Disney, the accused “continued to represent the musical of the Lion King with fraudulent schemes”. In 2017 he represented “The King of the Savannah. The Lion” at the Palau de Les Arts in Valencia.
This was not enough, months later he changed the name of the work to call it “Kimba, the legend” and took the illegal representation to Palencia and Bolaños de Calatrava (Ciudad Real), replicating the same modus operandi, and believing that the process against Disney did not would proceed, did the same with “Mary Poppins” and performed fraudulent musicals in Cáceres, Palencia, Mérida (Extremadura), Haro (La Rioja) and Aranjuez (Madrid).
Today, the prosecutor considered that the show promoter is responsible for crimes against intellectual property, for which tomorrow he could be sentenced to up to three years in prison, a fine of 6,600 euros and compensation for Disney of 40 thousand euros.
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